Baja Arizona

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Baja Arizona is an informal designation for the region of Arizona south of the Gila River and north of Sonora, Mexico (the section of the state added by the Gadsden Purchase). Baja Arizona includes the Tucson metropolitan area, as well as the cities of Tombstone, Willcox, Safford, Sierra Vista, Nogales, Douglas, Casa Grande, Gila Bend and Yuma.

Baja Arizona is also the name proposed by a small secessionist movement for the state that would be formed if this region were to secede from the rest of Arizona. Though the secessionist movement has not gained much traction, it is fueled largely by the social and political differences between residents of Tucson and Phoenix. Where Phoenix and Maricopa County have historically supported the Republican Party in elections, Tucson and Pima County tend to favor the Democratic Party. Due to the much larger population base in Maricopa County, Republicans have historically dominated Arizona politics, leaving many in Baja Arizona feeling unempowered. However, the suburbs of Tucson, including Oro Valley, Catalina Foothills, and Marana have traditionally voted Republican by a large margin.

Southern Arizona is represented in the U.S. Congress by two Democratic representatives: Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords.

Considerable historical and cultural differences divide Baja Arizona from the Phoenix metropolitan area. Baja Arizona's largest city, Tucson, was founded in 1775 as a Spanish presidio in what was then the frontier region of New Spain. Phoenix, in contrast, was founded in 1868 by white American settlers following the Mexican-American War, in the new U.S. Territory of Arizona.

The political and social divisions between southern Arizona and the state capital are not unique to Arizona. The State of Jefferson in northern California and southern Oregon, the cultural division between New York City and Upstate New York, and the separate identity maintained by residents of Michigan's Upper Peninsula illustrate the same sentiment.